CanPath Newsletter – Fall 2023

CanPath has released its Fall 2023 newsletter! You can see updates from CanPath and its regional cohorts: CanPath News September 2023 – Nouvelles CanPath septembre 2023 (mailchi.mp). Updates from Atlantic PATH include:  Attending and presenting at the Canadian Society for Epidemiology and Biostatistics (CSEB) Conference held in Halifax in June 2023. CanPath joining the COVID Global Mental Health Consortium that includes 23 international population health cohorts with more than 2.8 million participants! Researchers will work to address critical knowledge gaps related to the impact of policy, psychological and social factors on mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic.”This is an excellent opportunity for CanPath to be involved in such a large international mental health collective,” says Dr. Ellen Sweeney, Director of Research at Atlantic PATH. “We’re very fortunate to have engaged and enthusiastic participants from our regional cohorts, and more than 100,000 participants provided questionnaire data during the COVID-19 pandemic. The work of the COVID Global Mental Health Consortium will be impactful, and we’re thrilled to participate and contribute to this important research.” Atlantic PATH will lead and represent CanPath in this consortium, with analyses for CanPath being conducted in-house by Atlantic PATH’s Data Analyst, Yunsong Cui.   Regional updates including three new publications Congratulations to Dr. Lonneke van Tuijl, Dr. Joost Dekker and team on their new publication with the first results from the Psychosocial Factors and Cancer Incidence (PSY-CA) consortium. This study includes 18 cohorts with more than 300,000 participants, including Atlantic PATH, the Ontario Health Study and CARTaGENE. Congratulations to Dr. Ivan Litvinov, Dr. François Lagacé and the team at McGill University on their new publication from the SunFit project. This study included Atlantic PATH participants and considered why Atlantic Canadians are at higher risk for developing melanoma. Congratulations to Kalli Hood and the team at Dalhousie University on their new publication. Kalli’s Master’s research found an association between a history of cancer and arsenic speciation/metallome exposure in the Atlantic PATH cohort. This work is part of its larger focus on environmental exposure and cancer risk and the use of toenails as an important biomarker.

CITF COVID-19 Immunity Task Force Databank

CanPath and its regional cohorts, including Atlantic PATH, are proud to be part of the COVID-19 Immunity Task Force (CITF) Databank with our COVID-19 serology study that includes participants across the country. The CITF Databank data holdings include data from 21 studies, including six multi-province studies “representing a wide range of population and community data from various regions of Canada. Access is free and open to researchers everywhere.” Details: https://www.covid19immunitytaskforce.ca/citf-databank/ Last Updated on September 28, 2023

Ontario Institute for Cancer Research: Ask a Researcher

The Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) has interviewed our colleague, Dr. Kimberly Skead as part of Science Literacy Week. Dr. Skead answers a question about how blood changes as we age and implications for the prediction, detection and diagnosis of cancer. Credit: Ontario Institute for Cancer Research: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMB79lFBSqs) You can find the Ask a Cancer Researcher series on the OICR YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9sSkoHmrCGpy2AaxyG1JDZFfYRIwKeDX Last Updated on September 20, 2023

Upcoming Webinar: Empowering Breast Health: Personalized Approaches to Canadian Breast Cancer Screening

Join CanPath for an upcoming webinar from CanPath’s incoming Executive Director, Dr. Jennifer Brooks entitled, “Empowering Breast Health: Personalized Approaches to Canadian Breast Cancer Screening” on  Thursday, October 19th from 12-1pmEST/1-2pmAST. Details and registration info: https://canpath.ca/2023/09/webinar-breast-cancer-screening-brooks/ Last Updated on September 18, 2023

Celebrating Dr. John McLaughlin and Welcoming Dr. Jennifer Brooks

Dr. John McLaughlin is retiring as CanPath Executive Director and has been awarded Professor Emeritus status at the University of Toronto, while Dr. Jennifer Brooks will assume the role starting October 2, 2023. It has been a true pleasure for our Atlantic PATH team members to work with Dr. McLaughlin. He will be missed and we wish him all the best in the future. We are looking forward to working with Dr. Brooks as they step into their new role as CanPath Executive Director. Read the full release from CanPath: https://canpath.ca/2023/09/dr-mclaughlin-executive-director-retires-welcomes-dr-brooks/ Last Updated on September 14, 2023

CanPath is Hiring: Research Operations Manager

Join the CanPath team as the new Research Operations Manager at the University of Toronto. Deadline: September 22, 2023. “CanPath is Canada’s largest population health cohort and a national platform for population-level health research. CanPath is studying the biology, behaviours and environments of Canadians to learn more about the causes of chronic disease and cancer for the good of our country and people around the world. As the CanPath Research Operations Manager, you will be integral to maximizing research funding, which includes conducting detailed analysis and applying and interpreting relevant policies. You will be responsible for directing the activities of a group of staff and therefore will be working together to drive CanPath’s objectives. Using your analytical, communication and problem-solving skills, you will support and collaborate with a diverse set of stakeholders and partners in applying and interpreting policies and procedures, policy issues, and drafting contracts and agreements.” Details: https://jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Toronto-CanPath-Research-Operations-Manager-ON/573838317/   Last Updated on September 11, 2023

CanPath Scientific Director presents at AGBT Meeting

Advances in Genome Biology and Technology (AGBT) is “considered the preeminent genome science and technology conference where top global researchers, leaders and innovators meet to announce new discoveries, cutting edge breakthroughs and to collaborate.” CanPath Scientific Director, Dr. Philip Awadalla attended the AGBT Precision Health meeting in San Diego, California from September 7-9, 2023. Dr. Awadalla was a panelist speaking about The Great Debate, Genetics, Environment, and Health, alongside Dr. Gary Miller (Columbia University) and Dr. Alison Motsinger-Reif (National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences). Last Updated on September 11, 2023